Fibre has been exploding over the country at an incredible rate, but even so, it’s still not quite reaching enough people.
It is for that exact reason that Metrofibre Networx decided to no longer rely on the fibre infrastructure of third parties to provide its services, and will instead be putting down its own fibre cabling over the next two years.
The company today announced a partnership with Link Africa, which will see Metrofibre replace all of its core network fibre links with its own fibre infrastructure.
“Until now the company has leased the fibre links for its core networks, however, due to the high volumes and demand being experienced by the company, it has taken a strategic decision to replace the links and roll out its own fibre in a co-build agreement with Link Africa,” Metrofibre said in a media statement.
The project is aiming to get off the ground this month, and the goal is to have two major routes completed by the end of the year.
“When Metrofibre first started we leased our fibre infrastructure from a fibre service provider, however, it was always our intention to eventually roll out and own our own fibre infrastructure,” states Steve Booysen, chief executive officer at Metrofibre Networx.
“Now with the expansion of our network, our growing footprint in the FTTH arena (fibre we already own), and our need to scale more rapidly in order to better service our clients, we have taken the decision to fast-track the rollout of our own fibre infrastructure.”
The partnership will see Metrofibre and Link Africa independently own the fibre, but the two companies will share the cost of the shared routes. Metrofibre’s core network in Gauteng currently comprises approximately 250km of fibre routes, and connects nodes in all of the region’s major datacentres including Teraco, Hetzner, JINX/IS, Vodacom, MTN and Neotel.
“By owning our own fibre infrastructure and nodes we will be able to deliver reliable and cost-effective services, as well as provide better access to our FTTH rollout programmes and our corporate customers, by giving us the flexibility we need when scaling up our network capacity,” explains Booysen.
[Image – CC BY/2.0 Frédéric BISSON]
